Un-stage (rm) a file in Git

This post is part of my “Shorts” series, where each post is concise and hyper-focused on a single concept.

You have used the git add command to stage a file. But, if you accidentally stage an undesired file (like a log file), then how do you un-stage it?

The git-rm command

The command will work in this manner:

git rm --cached /path/to/file

The --cached flag specifically refers to the staging area. This command un-does the effect of git add /path/to/file command

What does the command do without the flag?

You must be familiar with the plain old unix rm command which deletes a file from your local disk. git rm is similar with some added flavor.

git rm does not work on newly created files. It only works on tracked files.

First, lets revisit the states of a file in a Git repository. A tracked file can be unmodified, modified or staged before being committed.

In case of unmodified file

git rm /path/to/file does two things:

1. Deletes the file from your local disk
2. Adds this change (deletion of file) to the staging area.

In essence it is equivalent to:

rm /path/to/file
git add /path/to/file

In case of modified file or staged file

You need to use the --force (or -f) flag. This is a safety feature since any modification is not saved in any of your previous version snapshots. If you run git rm on a modified or staged file as it is, then Git will throw an error.

Adding the --force option deletes the file from your local disk and stages this change (deletion of file).

You may have noticed that usage of --cached flag on staged files does not delete the files from the local disk. It only un-stages the files.

Further exploration

Run man git-rm in your terminal to learn more about using git rm.

Sources

• https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Git-Basics-Recording-Changes-to-the-Repository